


Café Bibliothéque

by INKQueen



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Drabble, Ficlet, In a Coffee Shop, OC cause i'm sorry, and there's no romance, coffee shop AU with a twist, it's not an au, just jason interacting with an adorable child, nope - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-24 10:27:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13211826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/INKQueen/pseuds/INKQueen
Summary: Jason gets an interesting customer at his day job. They bond over literature. Originally posted on Tumblr, putting up here.





	Café Bibliothéque

“‘Get a day job, Jason. It’ll be good for you, Jason.’ Agh, well fuck that.” Jason slammed the palm of his hand down on the coffee machine, which did not fix the fact that it was gurgling horribly and shuddering. Instead, steam began shooting out of the nozzle, scalding the back of Jason’s hand. He yanked it back, hissing.

“Katie, this thing is broken. Fix it,” he yelled into the back room.

A blond head with arched eyebrows and pursed lips poked out of the doorway.

“Um, sorry. On break.”

“Seriously? During rush hour?”

Katie shrugged and glanced at the machine. Seeing the state it was in, she rolled her eyes. “You are so mechanically challenged for a guy.”

Instead of responding, Jason stuck his hand in his mouth, letting his saliva cool the burn. He thought savagely that if it was a motorcycle, he would have the thing running no problem. The coffee machine was just too damn fiddly.

He went over to one of the smaller machines to get back to the drink he was making.

“Excuse me, is there some problem back there?” his customer called from the register.

“Not at all, sorry about the wait,” Jason answered in his saccharine customer service voice. God, he’d only been at this two weeks and he already hated the way he sounded when he talked to customers.

“Here’s your half shot one percent cinnamon dolce de leche latte,” Jason rattled off, carefully sliding the drink towards the brunette waiting with her friend on the other side of the counter while securing the lid.

She stopped the drink with her fingers and opened her mouth, held her breath for a second then closed it again.

“I’m sorry,” she finally got out, pushing the drink back across the counter. “I’m pretty sure I ordered soy milk.”

Jason was barely keeping a lid on his simmering anger. The smile slid off his face as he turned to Sarah, the senior employee manning the other register. She gave him a helpless shrug. It was only 7:30 in the morning, and the the line of customers was out the door, but they couldn’t afford any complaints. He would have to remake the drink, and Sarah would have to handle the other customers alone until Katie decided she was done with her ‘break.’

“I’m so sorry about that,” Jason said, turning back to the brunette. “I’ll replace it.”

He went to grab the latte back off the counter when the brunette’s companion stopped him.

“Look, I’ll just pay for this one, save you the trouble,” the other woman said, clearly taking pity on Jason. For some reason that didn’t make him feel any better. He went back to the counter and put half a shot’s worth of grounds into the machine. As he yanked open the refrigerator and double checked to make sure he was holding soy milk, he heard the brunette’s companion talking.

“So I guess the allergy test results came back?”

“Yes,” the brunette huffed behind him. “And I’m not allergic to dairy, just cats.”

“Why the soy then? You usually get it with milk.”

“Oh, I’m trying this new diet…”

Jason stopped listening so he wouldn’t be tempted to punch something. He returned to the counter with the corrected drink and rang the two women up without looking at them. A man in a business suit tried to cut to the front of the line and got into a knock down argument with Jason’s next customer. Over coffee. Jason simply stood there as the businessman yelled about getting to work on time. Jason’s real job was one of Gotham’s notorious vigilantes and a part time drug lord. He’d seen things these men couldn’t even imagine. The ridiculousness of all this was driving him over the edge.

Jason had had enough. “Excuse me, gentlemen, would one of you kindly order something before I die for a second time from your pettiness?”

The men stopped and blinked confusedly at Jason. Jason just put on his best imitation of Dick’s 100 watt smile and waited, silently cursing his older brother for recommending this job in the first place. The lady behind the two men pushed through them and quickly ordered a mocha latte. Jason obliged.

The morning rush settled down by about ten o’clock. The last customer in the mile long line approached Jason’s register. She was just a kid, maybe 10, with a dark pixie cut and an enormous jacket.

“Coffee, please.”

“What blend?”

“Um, normal, please?”

“With what?”

“Sugar, please.”

Jason felt like he should be annoyed. There was a sugar station right behind the kid. But he decided to humor her.

“Okay. How much sugar?”

“Two cubes, please.”

Jason quirked an eyebrow. “You think we got sugar cubes behind this counter, kid?”

She scrunched her face. “Oh. I guess not.”

Jason sighed and leaned down over the counter so he was just about eye level with the girl. “If you turn around, there’s a counter behind you where you can put as much sugar as you want in your coffee.”

The girl whipped around, then whipped back, eyes wide. “As much as I want?”

“Hey, hey, don’t go crazy now, but yeah.”

The kid broke into a snaggle-toothed grin. “Thanks!”

“Yeah, no problem, kid,” Jason said over his shoulder as he filled a cup with coffee from the dispenser. He handed it back to her. “Careful it’s hot.”

“Here’s the money.” The girl dumped a wad of a few ones and whole lot of quarters onto the counter.

Jason rang her up. “That’ll be one dollar.”

She counted out four quarters and stuffed the bills back into her pocket. Yes, Jason knew he was undercharging her, but seriously, she was just a kid.

“Thank you very much.”

“No problem, kid.”

Jason brushed a strand of sweaty white hair out of his eyes, grabbed a rag and began wiping down the counters. The big coffee machine was quiet, humming now instead of whining. Katie must’ve fixed it while he was busy. The girl was annoying, but she knew her way around machines. She’d disappeared again, though. Sarah had gone to check on the stock as soon as things had quieted down. Two customers left a few minutes later, chatting away, leaving the little girl as the only patron sitting in their tiny hole-in-the-wall coffee shop. She was sitting at the counter by the window, her legs swinging from the high stool.

Things stayed quiet for an hour or two until lunch. Once the cafe had emptied out again, Jason collapsed at a nearby table, brushing spilled cinnamon off the front of his apron. It was mental exhaustion more than anything. Being nice all day was killer. Jason wondered idly how Dick did it, stayed pleasant all the time.

Sarah approached him after he’d been sitting there a few minutes, looking embarrassed.

“Hey Jason, I know it’s not fair to ask this, but could you take the closing shift today? David just called and said his mom’s sick and he couldn’t come in.”

Jason scowled, not at Sarah, but at the situation in general. “Can’t Katie take it?”

Sarah shook her head. “She says she’s got a class tonight. Besides,” Sarah said, lowering her voice. “You may be newer than her, but I honestly trust you better to lock up.”

Jason worked his jaw a bit while he thought. He probably shouldn’t be out on the streets tonight; he’d been lying low since another fight with Bruce a few days ago. He didn’t need the hours or the money, but otherwise Sarah would take the shift, and she’d been working her butt off all week.

“Yeah, sure, take the night off,” Jason finally said.

Sarah looked like she might cry with relief. “Thanks Jason.”

He shrugged, and she left him alone. He decided to stay reclined in his chair a bit longer since he was going to be on his feet until late. He glanced around the shop and the kid from that morning still sitting by the window. She had produced a large book from somewhere and was absorbed in it. The rest of the shop was still empty. Simply out of curiosity, Jason wandered over to her.

“Whatcha reading, kid?”

Instead of answering, she simply tilted the cover towards him. The fancy font on the cover scrawled out _Les Misérables_ with an etching of Cosette.

Jason nodded, approving and a bit surprised. “Hugo. Nice. Where are you up to?”

The kid puffed in frustration. “I just started. I’m fifty pages in and they still aren’t done talking about this priest guy. I saw the musical ast week, and I thought I’d try out the book.”

Jason couldn’t help being impressed. He pulled out the stool next to her. “What’s your name, kid?”

“Maggie.”

“Short for Margaret?”

Her face scrunched up into a wickedly delighted smile. “Nope. Short for Magdalene. Everyone always thinks it’s Margaret. One of my teachers tried to call me Margaret once when she was mad at me, but I didn’t have to listen ‘cause that’s not my name. It’s one of my favorite things about me.”

Jason chuckled, true and deep in his chest, and it turned into a full, head-thrown-back laugh for a second. This kid was great.

“Okay Maggie, what else have you read?”

“Nope. You have to tell me your name first.”

“How ‘bout you guess it.”

“It’s Jason.”

“You read my name tag.”

“Yep. The last thing I read was _Oliver Twist_ by Darles Chickens.” Maggie erupted into squealing laughter at her own joke. Jason tried to twist his smile into a scowl.

“Come on kid, you got that from the BFG.”

Maggie nodded, giggling. “Yeah, but it’s still funny.”

“You know there’s a musical of _Oliver Twist_ too, right?”

“Oh, I didn’t. But I want to see it, definitely. Oliver was my favorite character.”

Jason nodded in agreement. He could remember the first time he’d read _Oliver Twist_. It was one of the few books he’d managed to get his hands on before Bruce had taken him in and given him a whole library. Jason had found the thick book in a library trash pile. It was beaten to all hell, and the library had probably just gotten in a new copy. Jason remembered crawling inside the story to hide, and how the tale of a little orphan who found love had put all kinds of hopeless hopeful ideas into his head. It had been an under-the mattress book, the kind to keep hidden away and treasured.

“Oliver is just like me, except in the olden days,” Maggie finished. “You know?”

“Yeah, I get it kid. I really do.”

Jason felt the urge to reach forward and pat Maggie’s head for just a second. It was too close to affection for him to be comfortable with it, no matter how much he related to the kid, and he wasn’t sure she would be comfortable with the action either, so instead he just listened. It hadn’t escaped Jason’s attention that a kid like Maggie should’ve been in school for the past couple of hours, or that someone should’ve come looking for her. Hell, a ten year old shouldn’t even be walking into coffee shops and ordering without some adult looking over their shoulder.

Of course Jason had noticed. But he’d let her stay, figuring she had picked this place because it was safe and he was going to keep it that way for her.

The late afternoon sun had just fallen under the top of the window frame, cutting the shop into squares of golden light and shadow. Maggie kept chattering away with Jason about books she’d read, and he occasionally provided her with recommendations of other things she might like. The shop stayed quiet as the grave. Jason couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt this peaceful. Or this… well, sad wasn’t the right word. But looking at Maggie’s excited face brought a small smile to Jason’s lips and a sinking in his stomach.

Sarah slipped out for her night off. A while later, Katie clocked out, a good half an hour before the end of her shift, Jason noted. He raised his eyebrows as she made for the door.

“Come on. It’s not like anyone else is going to come in,” she said, before slinking away. Jason really didn’t care all that much. By the time the door clicked shut, Jason had turned back to watching Maggie recreate an amusing scene from _Anne of Green Gables_ with her book and coat sleeves.

Contrary to Katie’s assertions, two more regulars did show up that evening. Jason served them while Maggie went back to her book. The sun went down, and Jason began closing up, locking the front and cleaning everything he could think of. Maggie was still on her stool by the time it was properly dark out and Jason had run out of things to do. He hung up his apron and approached her. She’d fallen asleep in her book.

He put a hand gently on her shoulder. “Maggie. I’m closing up for the night.”

She jolted upright, nearly falling off her stool and squinted one bleary eye at Jason. “Sorry, I’ll just get going.”

She grabbed her book one handed off the counter and headed for the door.

“That one’s locked,” Jason said, stopping her. “You’ll have to head out the back.”

“M’kay,” she mumbled, swaying slightly on her feet.

“Hey, have you had anything to eat today? And…” Jason ran a hand through his hair, doubting his idea, but he’d made up his mind earlier. “I hate to pry, but are you gonna get dinner where you’re going? ‘Cause I know a guy…”

Maggie instantly stiffened, with pride or caution Jason couldn’t tell. “I’m fine, but thanks.”

She turned to walk away again, but Jason stopped her with another gentle hand on her shoulder.

“Hey hey hey, Maggie, look,” he said, kneeling down to her level as she turned back around to face him. “Look, this guy I know loves to take care of kids like you and me, and he’s kinda like Mr. Brownlow in _Oliver Twist_.”

Maggie looked him up and down, clearly thinking. “He adopted you?”

“Well, the guy who actually adopted me is an ass --” Maggie smiled a bit. “-- but I’m hoping he won’t be around tonight. The guy we’re going to see is even better. It’ll just be for dinner, and I’ll make sure you get back safely to wherever home is for you, I promise.”

Maggie stood there in thought for a moment, shifting her weight from foot to foot. Jason knew she was weighing the risk of going anywhere with a near stranger against her judgement of Jason.

“Okay,” she finally said.

Jason let his breath out through his nose. “Great.”

They made their way to the back.

“This guy makes the best food in the world, and he’s read even more Dickens than I have,” Jason said as he locked the back door. “Just don’t hang around too much or you might accidentally get adopted.”

Maggie giggled as they made their way down the street. Jason knew that, in the end, he couldn’t really help her. But he would always undercharge her if she ever came in again for coffee.


End file.
